Birdfeeders

House sparrows are probably the most common bird seen in the United States. They live in cities, suburbs, on farmlands and most everywhere all over the continent. They can really monopolize a bird feeder. If this happens, the best solution is to add another tube feeder in another location if possible. Unlike most other birds that build new nests every year, the house sparrow keeps the same nest all through its life. They also keep the same partner. These small birds are unlike most other birds in another important way. They will raise up to four broods of chicks a year while most birds raise only one or maybe two. So once house sparrow nests are built nearby, your yard will have a constant and probably growing population of house sparrows. I love our year round group for they often gather in the middle of the day to visit the bird baths, preen, chirp loudly and generally be entertaining. If they seem to be too aggressive for other birds, I simply put out another tube feeder and also scatter some seed on the ground to add more options for other birds to take advantage of.

Goldfinches just love nyjer seed and will quickly find a feeder filled with these tiny black seeds. This seed (often called thistle even though it isn’t a thistle) is best served in thistle feeders for it is rather expensive and in feeders designed for bigger seed it will certainly cause quite a bit of loss. Although goldfinches love their nyjer, pay close attention to them around a bird feeder filled with sunflower seeds in the shell. This is great to watch! They don’t like to crack the shells of sunflower seeds, so they often wait until a good seed cracker arrives at the feeder. When a purple finch, grosbeak, etc. comes to your sunflower seed feeder and breaks the shell of a sunflower seed, it is time for a goldfinch to strike! The goldfinch often swoops in and steals the hulled seed before the poor other bird has a chance to eat it. If you want to avoid this behavior, in another feeder serve already hulled sunflower seeds. However, they a much more expensive, but do have the advantage of being cleaner for there are no discarded shells.

I know I should save this hint for spring, but I just came across a great idea that I don’t want to forget. In the spring, when we are trying to encourage the use of our birdhouses, offering nest building materials is always a good idea. Putting out short pieces of cotton string, straw, yarn, etc. are all good ideas, but I can hardly wait to try this idea! Buy a white cotton string mop head. Make sure none of the string is longer than 12-14 inches and cut apart any loops so all the strings hang as single strings. Then simple nail the mop head onto a fence post, deck post or any place that is easy to observe, but out in the open for birds to see. It is helpful if it is in a location that is easy for a bird to perch on. This mop should be visited by many local nest builders including orioles and other songbirds as they work hard to pull loose the individual strings.

From early spring to the end of summer, the male mourning dove can be heard with its distinctive “ooahoo, oo, oo oo” call. These large birds can be found in towns, along roadsides, on farms, in open grassland and even in open wooded areas. They are particularly fond of pine trees, and since we have many in our area, this is a common visitor to our platform feeders. They love cracked corn as well as seeds, so are often seen under the hanging tube feeders. They are frequent visitors to a birdbath which is located on the ground where they come for a drink of water. Even though they are ground feeders, they have figured out how to balance on a hanging platform feeder that has just been filled with tasty millet! Mourning doves as well as many other birds have crops in which they can store food. A crop is a pouch located in the bird’s neck. It can expand to hold up to 4-5 times as much food as the bird’s stomach can. These birds don’t need to feed often because they can carry a store of food with them. However, we find them as daily visitors to our yard. I have read that they can be quite aggressive around bird feeders, but that has not been the case in our yard. Maybe because we have multiple feeders in 3 different areas, they seem to intereact nicely with other species. They are however, not scared off by the aggressive jays.

If you have any large trees nearby such as oaks or maples, the shade they offer under their branches is a real draw for many birds such as finches, towhees, and thrushes. In the desert areas, quail and other species will seek the shade provided by large rocks or sagebrush. Water sources such as streams and bird baths offer a cool place on hot days. The bird baths will be especially busy on very hot days and will probably have to be filled more than once. When the temperature goes above 90 degrees, our bird baths are in almost constant use by finches, jays, orioles and even woodpeckers get into the act. On the few days that the temperature goes above 100, we sometimes even set up a small sprinkler on the grass. The grass can certainly use the extra water and the birds just love to visit the spray. A full bird bath will draw birds out throughout the day which makes for a very busy yard.

Now that you have put out your first bird feeder full of black oil sunflower seeds, what changes are you noticing in your yard? You can expect to see both resident birds and those that are just passing through. If you have also added shelter for bird safety, you may even attract some nesting pairs. A full hopper feeder is likely to draw a crowd, but you need to be watching at the right times. If you look outside around noon, you are very likely to see only a few birds. This is normal because most birds lie low during the middle part of the day. If you really want to know what birds are visiting your hopper feeder, be sure to be watching early in the morning. Birds are most active from first light to about 3 hours after sunrise. This is the time to observe bird activity at its fullest. It is interesting to observe this early morning period during all four seasons to see the differences in bird populations. Birds again come out to feed about 2 hours before sunset, although this is not as busy a time as early morning.

A window bird feeder should not be your first bird feeder if you have the space to put up a hanging bird feeder. For best results with a window bird feeder, it is a good idea to already be attracting birds to your yard with other bird feeders. Try to put a window bird feeder in a location that is not to close to a feeding station that has very popular seeds such as black oil sunflower seeds. Timing is also important. Introduce a new window bird feeder when natural foods like insects and berries are in short supply. It makes sense that birds are more likely to try something new when they are hungry. Then, fill your window bird feeder with desirable treats. I use sunflower seed chips and millet without husks. This is easy to eat and leaves little mess under the window feeder. If fruit loving birds such as mockingbirds and catbirds are visitors in your yard, add some golden raisins to the window bird feeder to encourage birds to visit. Chopped suet or bread crumbs are also good additions. If birds scatter whenever they see movement inside your house, you may want to hang sheer curtains so they can’t see you. Usually though, they will scatter for a few minutes and then come back. Over time, they will very likely get use to some movement inside and either ignore it or return quite quickly. It is a real treat to see birds this close so it’s worth a little extra effort.

If you live in an area with a large deer population, you know how they are happy to eat almost anything. They will consume any fruit, nuts or even seeds that they can reach, so there are only a couple of things that will stop them from emptying a tube bird feeder. The most full proof deterent is hanging the tube feeder, hopper feeder, etc. so high that they cannot reach it. The problem with this method is that the tube feeder is then so high that it is hard to reach for cleaning and filling. I have recently heard that what orchard owners do to keep deer away from their fruit would work for our home bird feeders as well. Hang bars of strongly perfumed soap near the bird feeders. Leave the wrapper on the soap so it lasts longer in the rain. Drill a hole through the soap, insert a piece of string or twine and hang it up like a Christmas tree ornament! Deer don’t like anything with a strong smell, which is why they won’t eat lavendar, most herbs, etc. in landscaping. This is an inexpensive solution to the problem.

Squirrels are smart and never give up, so keeping them out of bird feeders is a real challenge. Squirrels cannot chew through copper, so a solution that is both attractive and effective is a seed feeder surrounded by a copper cage. These copper squirrel proof bird feeders will thwart squirrels because they can’t reach through the cage to the seeds, but small birds can still access the bird feeder. The cage will also deter larger birds such as blue jays. Many people suggest setting up a feeding station just for the squirrels in an area away from the bird feeders as a means of distracting them. The problem I see with this is that the better fed squirrels are, the more young they may produce, thus increasing the population of squirrels in your yard. It’s important to remember that squirrels are voracious predators of eggs and nestlings, so the more squirrels, the larger the threat to local songbirds. I much prefer using squirrel proof bird feeders.